Super Bowl Israeli style: Chess, helmets and beer

Final NFL match has always been more about partying than about football.

By BEN JACOBSON
brady superbowl 63 (photo credit: )
brady superbowl 63
(photo credit: )
The New York Giants have not merited to win the United States National Football League's championship game, the Super Bowl, since 1991, when they earned their second title under the tutelage of coach Bill Parcells. Tom Coughlin, Parcells' wide receivers coach at the Giants, now serves as the team's head coach himself, leading them to a record-breaking 10 straight road victories and a trip to Phoenix, Arizona's Sun Devil Stadium to face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII this Sunday night. Parcells himself went on to take the reigns as the Pats' head coach in 1993, charged by owner (and supporter of the fledgling Israel Football League) Bob Kraft with rebuilding the team nearly from scratch over the course of four years. Nowadays the Patriots, Super Bowl regulars, are coached by Bill Belichick, who rose the ranks as Parcells' defensive coordinator at the Giants, poised this year to take his team where no professional sports franchise has gone before: The Patriots have not lost a game since the 2007-08 season began, and if they beat the Giants on Sunday, they'll end the year with an unprecedented 19-0 record. With Parcells' underling masterminds facing off against one another, the match-up promises to be the most cerebral and tactical Super Bowl in memory. But the NFL championship match has always been more about pomp, media dazzle and partying more than it is about actual football. And with the community of Americans living in Israel known for our reluctance to leave our cultural traditions behind, this weekend's showdown in Arizona has inspired a plethora of revelry options - even if kickoff is scheduled for a formidable 1 a.m. local time. Tel Aviv's Dancing Camel Brewing Company offers an amazing deal beginning at 10 p.m., with the NIS 80 admission price covering a food spread, a pre-game performance by the Gush Egozan bluegrass ensemble and all-you-can-drink hand-crafted beer in many seasonal flavors. Reservations for limited space must be pre-paid at dancingcamel.com, and for more information, the brewery, located at 12 Hata'asiya St., can be reached at (03) 624-2783. Aliya support institution Nefesh B'Nefesh is also hosting a get-together for all Nefesh B'Nefesh olim, with the game projected on an enormous screen at their offices at 5 Nahum Hafzadi St. in Jerusalem. For more information, call (02) 659-5700. As recent headlines have publicized, Hooters, in many ways the quintessential sophomoric American professional party institution, has recently opened in Netanya. The local branch is hosting its own Super Bowl party, with a very retail version of the ultimate sophomoric party tradition: the drinking contest. The table with the largest booze bill will win a football signed by the tight-shirted staff. Located near Ikea at 17 Giborei Israel St. in the Poleg Industrial Zone, Hooters Israel can be reached at (09) 835-3736.